Magnetic
by Heero de Fanel
Summary: Because sometimes the old cliche about opposites attracting rings true, whether or not one of them actually wants it to. 50 looks at Ikushima Sora and Shinomiya Yuuki; what was, what is, and what might be.


**Magnetic**

AN: Got around to playing Tokyo Xanadu, and damn if these two didn't jump out at me from the start! 50 sentences about the XRC first years, with a mix of time periods, tenses, and of course rampant punctuation abuse to make some of these work. Feels kinda weird writing about a pair that's not Machias/Emma or Rean/Alisa, but on the whole this turned out to be a really nice break! Besides, it's not like I don't have a ton of ideas for those ships swirling around my head at any given moment...

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#01 – Air

If Ikushima surprising the hell out of him with her yell half startled the wind out of him, the 'friendly' smack she gave him in greeting finished the job – damn it, that _hurt!  
_  
#02 – Apple

"You need to be more careful," Sora lightly scolded, applying the band-aid to his injured finger with a gentle touch before picking up the knife and fruit and demonstrating how to peel properly, much to his chagrin.

#03 – Beginning

Classmate to acquaintance, acquaintance to comrade, comrade to friend, friend to – whatever they were now – all of these had flowed into each other so seamlessly that Yuuki could have had forever to dwell on it and he wouldn't have been able to figure out where one ended and the next began.

#04 – Bugs

Sora nodded as enthusiastically as she could, a polite smile on her face as Yuuki jumped from engineering to Edison to computers and hardware at breakneck speed, his enthusiasm unfortunately not contagious; all she wanted to know was why computer bugs were called bugs, really!

#05 – Coffee

"You shouldn't drink so much of it, Yuuki-kun! Didn't Kou-sempai say that Kokonoe-sensei drank a lot of it school and that's why she never grew?; "Eh, I gotta stay awake somehow. Whatever happens, happens – besides, I'll still probably be taller than you, so…"

#06 – Dark

He thinks he likes her hair the most; it reminds him of the evening sky fading into twilight, and he's always done his best work when the sun had long since vanished behind the horizon.

#07 – Despair

Sora hadn't liked how Shinomiya had treated his sister, not at all, but what she had liked even less was the terrified look on his face when he finally understood just how much danger she was in.

#08 – Doors

"It's not that funny!" he snarled, rubbing his nose from where he had walked into the glass, glaring at the 'out of order' sign balefully as his girlfriend tried and failed to stifle her giggles behind her hands.

#09 – Drink

"Without going into too much detail – because last night was too good for us not to hold over your heads for years – let's just say you're a really clingy drunk," Shio deadpanned to a furiously blushing Sora and a mortified Yuuki, earning himself an eye-roll and a sharp poke to his side from Mitsuki not a second later.

#10 – Duty

He didn't particularly care about the mouthy karate-jerk, not really, but if Ikushima was running into the gate to bail his ass out… then who was he to let her do it alone?

#11 – Earth

"It really smells nice after it rains, doesn't it Yuuki-kun?" Sora asked, inhaling the fresh scent of the grove around them, the soft grass beneath their feet glittering with countless unshed droplets.

#12 – End

_"Careless, careless, I was too careless_", and as she sank to the ground with her vision fading to black and the blinding pain rapidly giving way to oblivion, the last thing she saw was Yuuki-kun looking absolutely stricken and desperately reaching out to her with a bottle of crimson liquid in his hand –

#13 – Fall

"Up and at 'em! Come on, everyone goes through this at the beginning. Right, sempai?" Sora chirped, and from his vantage point at the side of the dojo Kou could only shake his head at the sight of Shinomiya flat on his back, struggling to force air into his lungs; why in the world did he let Sora bait him into trying to learn the basics?

#14 – Fire

"H-How do I shoot again?!" Sora wailed, staring at the controller with a look of total defeat, and Yuuki merely heaved a deep sigh and adjusted his glasses; maybe starting a total newbie off with a Megastation 4 shooter was a little too much…?

#15 – Flexible

"Does he know he's staring? Because I don't think he knows he's staring," Kou observed with crossed arms and a smug grin, watching as the hacker's eyes 'idly' followed Sora as she ran through her pre-match stretches; beside him, Asuka shook her head but said nothing, a fond expression on her face all the while.

#16 – Flying

Okay, maybe someone should have told him that _landing_ after their aerial attacks was more difficult than actually executing them, but he had been so eager to help save his sister that Sora couldn't bring herself to reign in his newfound optimism; besides, it wasn't like he had been injured any, the bruising to his ego courtesy of Kou-sempai aside.

#17 – Food

Yuuki kept telling her that she didn't need to cook for him every time she came over, but in the end he would always end up admitting defeat, completely undone by her sunny smile and the repeated assertion that she enjoyed it.

#18 – Foot

It's not as if he hasn't stuck his foot in his mouth before, but Yuuki knows that he's crossed a line when one particularly peevish day he snaps at her without thinking and the result is dead silence followed by her footsteps as she walks away; she pretends that she's not sniffling, and he pretends that he doesn't want to drop everything to chase after her and make things right.

#19 – Grave

He's not sure what to expect when he brings her here for the first time, though he certainly didn't think Sora would smile, bow at the memorial marker, then start up a ridiculously perky one-way conversation that involved waaaaaayyy too many mentions about how much she liked her son.

#20 – Green

There are a hundred and one things running through Rion's head when she sees Sora wearing Yuuki's signature windbreaker one cold day; much to their relief, she simply grins and comments that color flatters her a lot more than it does him, pointedly ignoring hacker's irritated protest of "W-Who asked you, anyway?!"

#21 – Head

"Geez, why'd you even come to school today? You're burning up," he lectures as she rests in the nurse's office, his palm resting on her brow, and she quiets the worry in his voice when she reaches up to rest her hand upon his with a reassuring smile.

#22 – Hollow

"He fucked up, didn't he?" Shio notes quietly – though not unkindly – as he observes the wide, uncertain berth the two first years are giving each other; resting against him, Mitsuki nods in silent agreement, because never before has she heard Sora's laugh ring so empty or seen Yuuki's eyes so vacant.

#23 – Honor

After hearing the story about Aizawa, Yuuki asked if it had ever occurred to her to take it easy, maybe carry her a little like he had to do whenever he was saddled with weak players in a team deathmatch; he was startled when Ikushima shook her head furiously and exclaimed that she could _never_ tarnish her pride as a martial artist like that, not in a million years.

#24 – Hope

She finishes wrapping the rice balls with a flourish and wonders how her cooking will be received the next day; truthfully, Sora doesn't expect much, but she plans to offer it to him anyway because she thinks they really could be friends and nothing's ever gained without venturing first.

#25 – Light

He's not one for cloying sentimentality at the best of times, but when he awakens to Sora resting peacefully against his chest, bathed in the brilliant glow of morning, he knows that he's awakened to the most beautiful sight he will ever see.

#26 – Lost

"All right, maybe an emergency pair of contacts wouldn't have been a bad idea," Yuuki grumbled, squinting in vain to try and see the path ahead of them, and Sora could only giggle and squeeze his hand in reply.

#27 – Metal

It's simple and unadorned, not necessarily something that would grab someone's eye upon first glance, but the mental image of it gleaming on her ring finger never fails to make his head spin and his heart race.

#28 – New

_"Since when does Yuu-kun let people do that?"_ Aoi thinks, watching out of the corner of her eye as Sora sneaks up on her unsuspecting little brother and startles him with a poke, giggling as he wheels around and starts launching invective that, to her trained ear, doesn't sound all that displeased; she supposes he's simply growing up, and the joy she feels is far greater than the quiet melancholy.

#29 – Old

"Huh, so this is what you looked like when you were younger. Lucky the dojo kept these training photos, otherwise I'd have never known. Love the band-aid on the nose, by the way," he snickered, not bothering to defend himself when a red-faced Sora smacked his arm.

#30 – Peace

He trusts her enough that sometimes when she comes over and sees that he's tired, he allows himself to be coaxed into taking a short nap; it's moments like that she wishes would last forever, moments where the genius hacker falls away and all that remains is a beautiful sleeping boy.

#31 – Poison

"Maybe I should help with the curry next time, Yuuki-kun," Sora offered sheepishly, and he couldn't bring himself to argue because he was pretty sure people had gone to _jail_ for lesser crimes than this.

#32 – Pretty

"Come on, Yuuki-kun! I think they'd look nice!; "Good for you! Too bad that I couldn't care less what you think, so keep those hair clips of yours _away from me!"_

#33 – Rain

He catches her silently watching the downpour through the window and debates pointing out that his apartment has multiple computers from which they can stream almost anything; instead, he joins her, not protesting in the slightest when she rests her head on his shoulder with a content sigh.

#34 – Regret

Yuuki wants to apologize to her, to say that he's sorry for being such an asshole, but every scenario he runs through in his head ends in abject failure and his heart sinks as he realizes that even though it was his words got him into this mess, his words won't be enough to get him out; he knows what he's good at, and he knows what he isn't.

#35 – Roses

Instead, he remembers that she showed him an instructional video on how to fold origami flowers a little while ago; naturally, he had rolled his eyes and tuned her out without a second thought, but now he pulls out his Xiphone, loads the clip, and resolves to practice until he can produce them in his sleep because if he managed to code the God's App, then this didn't stand a chance.

#36 – Secret

Ayumi squeals upon seeing the (anonymous and slightly sloppy) gift in her shoe locker; Sora dimly hears her asking who the mystery admirer might be, but she doesn't bother informing her that she recognizes the design immediately and the tiny imperfections tell her more than any signature ever could.

#37 – Snakes

"What? They're kinda cool!" Yuuki defended, throwing up his hands when he saw her frown, shake her head, and inch away from the exhibit, her wary eyes once never leaving the reptiles.

#38 – Snow

"That's not how my name is written, you know," he grumbled, wishing that he had brought a hat as the flakes swirled down around them, and Sora flashed him a bright grin as she honest to god _twirled_ saying that it sounded similar, so it was good enough for her.

#39 – Solid

He hadn't taken her comments about poor circulation seriously until a particularly vicious cold spell hit Morimiya; she in turn hadn't taken too well to his observation that it would probably feel less like hugging a block of ice if she ever wore thicker socks and a few extra layers when they slept.

#40 – Spring

"How the hell is this your favorite season?!" he snarled piteously, his eyes red and watery and his sense of smell completely gone; Sora, for her part, smiled sympathetically and patted his shoulder before explaining that it helped to make sure that she took plenty of allergy medication before the pollen really got out of hand.

#41 – Stable

When Sora calls his name and throws her arms around his neck in a warm hug, any embarrassment he feels disappears instantly when she giggles and whispers 'I forgive you' into his ear because what once was damaged and shaky was now repaired and fully whole, and as far as they were concerned… all was well and truly right with the world.

#42 – Strange

All she could see was a bunch of screens and computer terminals – there were no family pictures, plants, or anything that remotely exuded warmth or welcome, and not for the first time she found herself wondering just what sort of person this Shinomiya Yuuki really was.

#43 – Summer

"It's hooooooooooooot," Sora moaned, ineffectually waving a makeshift paper fan in a vain attempt to cool herself down, and Yuuki could only nod in agreement and turn away to face the window because answering her would have meant looking at her, and considering the heat was making her uniform cling in some very interesting ways, that would have been… unwise.

#44 – Taboo

"Love is love, Yuuki-kun. Whether it's being given, received, or shared is beside the point, isn't it?" she murmured gently, letting their fingers wind together as the boy's gaze slowly swept from Kou to Asuka to Shiori, understanding gradually appearing in his lavender eyes.

#45 – Ugly

"Our kid's not gonna look like _that_, is it?" Yuuki said, looking down at the anatomy textbook with a pained grimace before his wife silenced him with an affronted glare, one hand on her slightly rounded abdomen – all babies were cute and she wouldn't hear otherwise!

#46 – War

"Don't even try, Ikushima. We're going again, and don't you even think about letting me win!" he declared, and she simply gave a nervous chuckle in reply before picking the controller back up – damn it all, it was bad enough he got rolled by Takahata-sempai, but her too?

#47 – Water

"T-Thank you," she half says and half gasps, downing most of the bottle in seconds, and Yuuki raises his eyebrows and makes a gesture to slow down; training in the heat is all well and good in theory, but cramping after because you drank too much seems counter-intuitive to the whole concept.

#48 – Welcome

"We're home," Sora whispered to the sleeping bundle in her arms, her eyes tearing up when she felt her husband press a soft kiss to the top of her head. "Home."

#49 – Winter

"Scarf," she reminds him with a mock glare as he prepares to run out the door, and though Yuuki grumbles to no end as she ties it around his neck, he never once stops her from doing it (and probably never will, either).

#50 – Wood

They're sitting against a tree in the park when they kiss for the first time, and it's funny how easily they can remember the little things - like how the rough bark felt against their backs - but not the big things… like y'know, who kissed who.

(For the record, it was Sora).


End file.
